Seeking Magic
by goxeris
Summary: Rosemary Green lives an almost ordinary life in Marleybone. The only exceptions are her frequent visits to the Dreadful's estate where her friend Penny awaits for her every day. Follow Rosemary's adventures as she fights tooth and nail to pursue her dream of studying magic at Ravenwood school of wizardry.
1. Dreadful Magic

**Author's notes:**

 **Hello! This is my second story ever. I hope you enjoy it.**

 **It will have a connection to Fragment of a wish, so that means I will work on both stories at the same time, even though this one is going to be shorter.**

 **Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Tell me what you liked or didn't like, I want to improve as much as I can.**

 **A huge thank you to gh0stheart for beta reading, it means a lot to me.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Wizard101 or any characters except for my OCs**

* * *

 **Chapter 1- Dreadful magic**

* * *

A little girl stood in front of a huge gate, her hands holding tight to the bars as her head was pressed between them in curiosity. A wide cobblestone road slithered through the luxurious garden, dodging exotic-looking plants and tall trees, as it connected the entrance of the estate to a beautiful mansion a hundred meters away.

Another little girl, dressed in black expensive clothes, glanced at the unusual visitor, while gently cradling a finely dressed porcelain doll in her arms.

"Hello, who are you?" the girl innocently addressed her curious peer.

The little girl looked as if she had just snapped out of a daydream, and as she quickly distanced herself from the gate, she stuttered out a few embarrassed words, "h-hello, m-my name is R-Rosemary."

The girl inside the garden smiled encouragingly and replied, "my name's Penny."

A few seconds passed in awkward silence. It felt like an eternity before Rosemary took a deep breath and asked, "my grandfather said that you are wizards. Is it true?"

Penny nodded and replied full of pride, "yes my mum and dad are wizards, and I'll become one too when I grow up!"

Rosemary widened her eyes in surprise and asked another question, "is it true that wizards do magic? Like making things fly?"

"Yes, they do it all the time," Penny confirmed, slowly approaching the gate.

"Really? Grandfather always tells me nice stories about wizards and magic," Rosemary said, her eyes sparkling in admiration for the little girl just beyond the gate. She could tell that Penny lived in a completely different world than what she was used to.

"Rose… Do you want to play with me?" Penny asked, unable to remember the full name of the person in front of her, as she lifted her doll up with a hopeful expression.

And thus a friendship was born.

* * *

"Rose, you won't believe it! I made it!" Penny shouted out as she approached her friend at the gate, a voluminous leather-bound book held tight in her hands.

"Wow Penny, you're amazing!" Rose answered laughing, she had resigned to her shortened name long ago, and with time it had started to feel more familiar than the original.

"Come in, so we can read it," Penny said, opening the gate to her estate with an old rusty key.

Rose walked in impatiently and gave the book a long revering look.

"To the secret hideout!" Penny exclaimed. She ran off the cobblestone road and found her way in a luxuriant bush through a masterfully concealed small opening, practically unnoticeable by who didn't spend as much time as them in the Dreadful mansion's garden.

A few rays of light filtered through the green leaves, illuminating the secret hideout just enough to read without strain. Two logs were placed on the floor as chairs, stolen from the wood-stock just outside the kitchen. The two girls seated on them, paying no mind to how uncomfortable they were.

"Ready?" Penny asked, crossing Rose's gaze, hardly suffocating a smirk. She lifted the tome between her and her friend with shaky hands and waited for an answer.

"As ready as ever, Penny," Rose replied, voice brimming with excitement.

"One, two three!" They counted, opening the book like two accomplices who checked stolen goods, which in fact was exactly what they were doing.

"Oh, these are magic spells then! They do look… magical," Rose commented, skimming down some elaborate illustrations of wand gestures.

"Duh," laughed Penny turning some pages.

They skimmed through the pages as time passed, laughing at all the various spells and their uses. They eventually ended up pretending to be wizards, muttering nonsensical words as they tried to turn each other into frogs.

"Rose… How old are you?" Penny asked out of the blue, glancing questioningly at the girl who was pretending to drop imaginary newt eyes into an imaginary cauldron.

"Eleven now," Rose replied as her smile dropped.

"Oh… Have you asked your family yet?"

"Yeah, I did, and they said no. You know my mother, she's set on keeping me away from it all."

Penny laughed nervously, "yeah, she would freak out if she found out you come here every day."

Rose closed the book with a thump and asked, "you'll go next year right?"

Penny nodded, "that's right, dad has already sent a letter to Wizard City."

"Oh," Rose commented.

Penny waved her hands in front of her in dismissal and said, "he isn't sure that they'll take me though! There is an entrance test of sorts. He's not sure if I'll pass."

Rose shook her head, softly hitting Penny on the head with the book, "hey! Don't you dare fail it, you'll have to become a wizard for me too!"

"Don't worry! I'll become a very good wizard. Then I'll come back and teach you everything I know."

Rose laughed, "you'd better."

They chatted for a few more minutes on the subject of the famous school of Ravenwood, in the world of Wizard City. A place that Rose had always dreamed about. She had been able to visit it only through Penny's second-hand tales and the old books of the Dreadful's library.

"I'm sad though. We could have gone together. Well… you should have waited a year for me to turn eleven, but once I did, we could have had a blast," Penny commented.

Rose managed a stretched smile, "yeah. It'll be hard once you're gone."

"Hey, it'll be next year. Don't mourn my death just yet."

"Oh, she was such a nice girl. Annoying and demanding, but it was indeed true friendship!" Rose went on, faking a devastated expression.

"Close your mouth and let's go drink some tea, mum loves whenever you come by," laughed Penny as she got up.

Rose didn't move though, looking at the book once more before saying out loud, "I would like to try out a spell. Just one. For real this time."

Penny sighed as she took a wand out of her sleeve, "I knew that you'd eventually say that. Look and bow to the amazing person who is your friend."

"Is that… a wand?!" Rose squealed, her voice reaching new high-pitched heights.

"Yeah, it's my mum's," Penny confirmed as she showed it over.

Rose took it after crushing Penny in two consecutive hugs for good measure, she then opened the book and cleared her throat as she had decided on which spell to attempt.

"The… familiar binding spell?" asked Penny perplexed. "Isn't that supposed to be done with eggs or newborn animals?"

"Really? Oh well… let's try it out anyway. Look! That rabbit is asking for it," Rose replied, pointing a rabbit with the wand as she kept hidden in the hideout. The animal didn't seem to have noticed their presence and was sniffing suspiciously a small rock.

"You are attempting to bind one of my bunnies?" Penny deadpanned.

"Sure, you said yourself that they are multiplying too much these days," Rose said, as she memorized the instructions on the page.

"Well… okay, dad would give some away eventually. He isn't too fond of them," Penny agreed.

A few words, a few motions of the wand and a bright flash of light enlightened the inside of the hideout blinding the occupants. Penny's jaw dropped in amazement at the sight and Rose dropped the wand to the ground in shock, her eyes wide in surprise for what she had done.

"I-I h-had cast a spell!" Rose gasped, unable to process the information.

"The bunny! Let's see if it worked!" Penny exclaimed, shaking her friend out of her daze.

The two of them rushed out of the secret hideout and hurried down to the place where the bunny was. The little animal turned towards them as it munched on something. Startled, it made a run for it to the nearest bush.

They stopped their run and Penny said disappointedly, "oh well. I hoped it had worked. According to the book, it wouldn't have been afraid of you."

"I-I-I had cast a spell!" Rose continued to stutter. Her heart beating fast in her chest.

"Almost cast one," Penny corrected, "and seeing how much you got excited for a flash of light, you would have fainted if you actually managed to cast one."

After Rose had calmed down enough to be reasoned with, they decided to return the wand and book where Penny had found them. They then went to drink some tea with Mrs. Dreadful, before passing the rest of the afternoon talking about their almost-cast-spell. They then reluctantly separated when Rose had to go back home.

* * *

It was late in the night when Rose woke up. She had some problems falling asleep in the first place, but in the end, she had given in to tiredness. She couldn't believe how a flash of light had made her that happy. It meant that she had at least some talent for magic. Many wizards had to study long and hard to be able to make anything happen at all.

There were some bangs coming from something hitting on her room's window. They shook away her drowsiness as she sat up and looked outside. The road was lightened up by lanterns and as far as she could tell there was no one in sight. She heard another feeble bang, as something bumped on the window again.

Confused, she approached the source of the noise, multiple questions filled her mind. She knew that the streets were dangerous at night. Should she dare to look? She felt braver than usual though so she decided to risk her luck. Giving a good look at the empty streets before slowly unlocking the window.

Something small rolled inside, landing on the floor with a thud. It spun around before opening a pair of eyes to stare at her. The Rock talked in a smug tone, its words echoing directly inside her mind, "hello, Rosemary Green. Apparently, I am your familiar now."


	2. Pocket-sized Problems

**I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs**

* * *

Chapter 2- Pocket-sized problems

* * *

 _"Straighten your back!"_

 _"Is that how you brush your teeth? Use more strength!"_

 _"Pfft, and you are the one who bound me? I can't accept a worthless master who doesn't keep her room tidy."_

 _"Oh, so these are your parents. Your mother is such a fascinating woman and your dad has solid moral principles… I know! You have been adopted!"_

 _"And that is what you call eating? You look like a cow munching hay."_

Rose couldn't take it anymore. That rock was driving her insane! It didn't even have a mouth to speak with in the first place, but such trivial matters didn't stop it. Every time it got a chance to mock her, it sent its thoughts directly to her mind, bombarding her with them every few seconds or so. Just what did she sign herself into when she had cast that spell? Her familiar felt more like a pocket-sized bully who harassed her twenty-four hours a day than the supporting helper in the spell's description.

"Leave me alone already!" she snapped, after the umpteenth evil comment on her way of eating breakfast.

The realization of having shouted out loud in front of her family made her freeze in terror. Her mother had a scandalized look as she was caught in the act of placing some bread on the table, her father's scrambled eggs dropped back on the plate as he stopped the fork halfway to his mouth, and her grandfather lifted his eyes from the newspaper in surprise.

Rose blushed profusely before muttering, "sorry, I meant it for a tune in my head. It's since yesterday that I can't get it out. It really was catchy."

Her grandfather nodded, taking some bread before agreeing, "those nasty tunes sure are annoying aren't they?"

 _"You lie to your own family? Master, how disgraceful can you be?!"_

Rose ignored the comment, spreading some butter on the bread, as she thought of a way to resolve her situation. She couldn't tell her family, in fact, she had been hiding her familiar in her pocket for the last two days.

Her grandfather would surely believe her and help her out, but her dad would scold her for practicing random magic spells for no reason. They had already talked about her idea of learning magic many times over and she had never won the argument. A wizard's life was hard, even dangerous at times and her family didn't want her to choose a dangerous lifestyle.

If it had been for her mother Elaine, she would have been confined to housework her whole life. Elaine hadn't been raised as a Green, after all, she was an Anderson with respectable Marleybonian standards. She hadn't even been taught to read and write. The Anderson family wanted to use her to expand wealth and influence through marriage.

Thankfully for Rose, who would've never been born otherwise, that never happened. Someone had burnt down the mansion in a mysterious circumstance. Her mother, the only one left alive due to sheer luck, was left with nothing, finding hospitality with the Greens and eventually marrying their only son.

Rose had no idea what made her parents fall in love with each other, they surely did though, and their life somehow worked, balanced around the strictness of her mother and the eccentric tendencies of her father.

 _"So that is how it happened. Thank you for clearing it up master!"_

 _"Shut up familiar!"_ she thought, sending to the rock all the frustration that she could muster. The rock could easily read her mind, and whenever she wasn't paying attention, it would rummage in her memories.

Rose sighed as she helped her parents clear the table, trying her best at ignoring the nasty comments on how she was born. That rock never stopped. She resolved to meet up with Penny later that day, maybe she had managed to steal the book again.

* * *

"What took you so long?" Rose asked with a mighty glare, as Penny opened the gate to her garden, inviting her to come inside.

Penny hugged the leather-bound tome and lowered her gaze, "it isn't as easy as you think it is! My parents are always around the study."

 _"Oh, you almost made your friend cry. Quick master, tell her something! If you manage to say the right thing, you'll be rich in no time selling noble's tears!"_

Rose shook her head, ignoring the voice, "sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just… It's driving me crazy!" She took the rock out of her pocket and threw it as far as she could.

Yeah, I know. Don't worry," Penny replied, leading the way inside the hideout. They sat down and turned the book's pages until they found what they were looking for.

"Okay… It says that the spell to unbind the familiar… Oh, I don't understand anything of this, why couldn't it be as simple as binding one?!" Rose cried out in frustration.

"Dealing with a mistake is supposed to be harder than making one. That's because you have to acknowledge making one in the first place," Penny recited. "Mum says it all the time."

"Yeah, but what does any of it have to do with us now?"

"I'm not sure… I just wanted to help," Penny shrugged.

 _"I can answer your question, ignorant master. If you aren't willing to work hard to undo a mistake, you don't recognize it is serious enough to be worth fixing up. It almost seems that you want to keep me, doesn't it?"_ The rock chimed in the conversation with its smug tone.

"Oh, what do you know?! You are just a rock!" Rose shouted in anger, taking it out of her pocket and throwing it away a second time. No matter how many times she did it, her familiar would always find the way to sneak back in her pocket.

Penny looked like she had decided to ignore Rose's sudden outburst and started to read aloud the instructions. Time passed as they tried and tried with no result. Rose used the wand, did the movements right, she even pronounced the words with different pronunciations. Nothing at all. The rock was still there to harass her.

 _"Oh well, you'll have to resign to have me around forever. You'll spend your time and energies better if you think of a name for me instead,"_ The rock gloated.

"Yeah, I'll call you Rocky, okay? Now stop and let me concentrate on your elimination from my life," Rose snapped in exasperation, saying the first thing that came to mind.

 _"Rocky, master must have thought long and hard about coming up with something so… original. I am humbled in front of your amazing inventive and creative genius,"_ The now dubbed Rocky replied sarcastically.

"Ugh, there is no way to do it. We'll have to ask your parents," Rose said, resting her head in her hands.

"Don't give up just yet. They would get really angry at me for playing around with their things."

"Okay then, do you have any other plan?"

Penny slowly closed the book and weighed every word coming out of her mouth carefully, "it's not really a plan, it's more of a farfetched idea."

"I'm all ears."

"We could try to ask a magician."


	3. The Magician

**I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs.**

Chapter 3- The Magician

The two girls walked down the crowded street. They kept close to each other as dogs looked at them with curiosity. Humans were very rare in Marleybone and two human children walking alone down the road wasn't something that could be seen every day.

"I think it's there." Penny pointed at a narrow alley on the left. She excused herself as she passed through the crowd and dragged Rose with her to the place she was targeting.

"Are you sure? This place stinks," Rose commented.

"I think so," Penny said, eyeing the street warily. A group of cats was talking animatedly at the corner, but other than that, it was utterly deserted.

"You think so? How did you know of this magician in the first place?"

"Um… I found some leaflets," Penny confessed, doing a step forward to investigate the alley better.

 _"And I thought that she had some kind of plan! Turns out she's picking at straws as much as you,"_ Rocky laughed inside Rose's head.

Rose rolled her eyes _. "At least she has a plan. You seem to only exist to talk me down. Don't you have an idea to help us instead? You seem to know all kind of things without anyone telling you."_

Rocky didn't respond for a few seconds, only to give an enigmatic answer. _"Your naivety never cease to surprise me, Master. I do exist to talk you down, and I know only what you know."_

Rose didn't stop to think about those words. That rock had sprouted too much nonsense in the past few days for her to care at all. Penny gave her a nod and she followed her in the alley.

The place wasn't welcoming at all; most windows were broken, the walls filthy and the pavement littered with garbage. Worst of it all was that the band of cats had stopped their argument to look at them with voracious feline eyes.

Rose took a tight grip on Penny's hand. They weren't going to harm them, not this close to the main road were their screams could be easily heard.

 _Why am I thinking such things?_ she thought.

Penny smiled at her and whispered, "don't fear them, just glare back at them. They won't do anything if you look dangerous."

 _"Good way of getting in trouble young miss,"_ Rocky commented. The only one who heard it was its master, and she ignored its warning, as usual.

Rose didn't flinch and moved on, giving a nasty glare to the cats. She knew that Penny had done the same when the cats widened their eyes in terror, soft hissings escaping their throats. They wouldn't attack them; Penny's glares were utterly terrifying. Rose should have expected it from a person who had undead chilling in her house's backyard.

 _"Oh, she does have some guts it seems. Maybe you two can get back home eventually_ ," Rocky commented.

Rose gulped as they knocked on a dirty door. A single manifest advertised the shop.

'The great Ratgard. Come and be amazed by true magic!'

Under it, there was an image of a rat in a suit holding a staff in a rather theatrical pose.

"I probably need to repeat the question, Penny. Are you sure this is the right place?" Rose asked. It looked very much like a charlatan's shop.

"Um… I didn't realize he was this… showy? Well, we're here now, so let's just try," Penny reflected. She was dead set when she wanted to do something. Especially if it all started as her idea.

Penny knocked on the door. The sound seemed to have gone unheard for a minute, but seconds before the two girls' patience was drained, the door opened and someone said, "Come in."

The shop's floor was full of carpets with mysterious symbols on them, covering every nook and cranny. At the center of the room, there was a rectangular shaped table with a deck of cards placed on top, an old red couch stood on one side of it, and a red armchair on the other. The thumps of their muffled footsteps were the only noises that they heard as they slowly walked forward.

They surpassed some shelves and furniture which looked like it had been devoured by termites.Amazingly, many magical objects were put on display: torn books, crystal balls, wands and glass vials containing oddly colored liquids.

A small golden key in a glass case captured Rose's attention and she approached it to inspect it better.

"Are you interested in the spiral key, my dear?" A sudden voice made Rose jump with a start and swiftly turn towards its source. A rat came out of a door on the side and smiled courteously.

"I-is it a spiral key?" Rose stuttered.

Penny came closer to look at it too and confirmed: "Yeah, it does look like my parent's one."

"Welcome to my shop, young ladies, I am Ratgard the great! That is indeed a spiral key. One leading to Wizard City nonetheless! Are your parents wizards, young miss?" Ratgard inquired.

Maybe Rose had just imagined it, but she thought to have seen a spark in the rat's eyes. Getting to know that the key led to Wizard City though, made her forget everything else as she looked at it in wonder.

"Yes, they studied at Ravenwood," Penny replied, looking at the key.

"Ravenwood! Oh, I've studied there for many years before traveling the spiral in search of the lost world of Celestia! What's your surname? Maybe I recall them."

"It's Dreadful… And you have traveled the spiral? That's amazing!"

"Dreadful, huh? Amazing my dear, it is truly amazing. Why don't you sit down on the couch? There is much I want to tell."

Without understanding exactly how it happened, Rose and Penny found themselves on the couch, listening intently to Ratgard's adventures in the distant world of Mirage.

His words were mesmerizing and the story was full of tension and plot-twists. Ratgard told them how he traveled alone in the endless deserts and how he met many people, solving their problems with a wave of his wand. He even told them all about the gentle race of the Manders.

The couch felt extremely comfortable regardless of appearances, and Rose started to sink in it, her eyes slowly closing. The story was vivid in her mind, the words coming out of Ratgard's mouth lulled her to sleep.

 _Do manders live in Mirage?_ She found herself thinking. It's just a story, it doesn't matter.

The rat's gentle voice caressed her ears, the doubts rendered null by the enthralling tone. Penny adjusted herself in a more comfortable position beside her, her head dropping down on Rose's arm.

The story is awesome, but why did we come here? Rose thought.

Something was missing. A voice that hadn't left her for two days was silent. As she finally closed her eyes, she realized that Rocky hadn't spoken even once since they had entered the shop. Then, dreams welcomed her.


	4. The not-so-great Escape

**Author's notes:**

 **Sorry this came out later than usual, but it's double the length so it should count for something. XD**

 **I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs.**

 **Chapter 4- The not-so-great Escape**

She woke up with a start. Her back ached as the memories of having fallen asleep on the couch came back to her. She tried to move her arms. She couldn't. Thick ropes tied her to a wooden chair. A bandage made it impossible for her to release the scream of terror that climbed up her throat, letting out only muffled noises. The surroundings weren't those of the shop. It was a barren room, with only one window, closed up by black curtains and a wooden door leading to somewhere unknown.

A groan coming from behind her alerted Rose of Penny's presence. She must have been tied up too. Ratgard had done something to them. He did look suspicious now that she thought of it.

 _"Wakey - Wakey master! Have you slept well on your throne of naivety?"_ Rocky said. Rose widened her eyes in surprise, muffled sounds came out to try and answer. _"When will you ever understand that there is no point in speaking out loud with me? Just think master, that's enough."_

The girl frantically moved her head around the room, as she tried to break free _. "Rocky, What happened?! We were talking to Ratgard and-"_ The thoughts were confused and scattered. Figments of dreams lingered at the borders of her mind.

 _"You walked right into a trap, you can deduce the rest for yourself."_

 _"A trap? No… Why?"_

 _"Oh, there are many reasons for kidnapping people. If you want me to list them all, there is no problem, we sure have the time now."_

 _"Tell me what you know!"_

 _"Alright, alright. I'll tell you what you know. Honestly speaking, I wouldn't kidnap you at all. Master really isn't worth such an effort. Penny over there might be a very good target though, being rich and all."_

 _"They want a ransom from the Dreadfuls..."_

 _"Bingo master! I knew that your passion for crime stories would come in handy someday."_

Rose sank in the chair, was all of it her fault? No, it was that rock! It was all its fault!

 _"I fear that anything I do falls under the category of your fault, Master,"_ Rocky laughed.

Penny stirred behind her and the muffled noises of her panicking reached Rose's ears. The chairs moved as she struggled to get free to no avail and ended up giving up. Unsaid words filled Rose's mouth, blocked by the bandage, not able to get out. Some time passed. It could have been a few minutes as it could have been hours.

The door to the room opened, glimpses of Ratgard's shop could be seen behind it. It closed as Ratgard himself approached them with a triumphant grin. "How are my guests feeling?"

Angry muffled sounds replied to him which he seemed to ignore, then he addressed Penny directly, "who would have known that you would have come here of your own initiative? It's been weeks of trying to take you here, yet you never leave that garden of yours."

More struggles and more muffled noises. Ratgard covered his mouth in feigned concern. Then approached Rose, slowly taking out a knife from his suit. "You see, I would love to hear what you have to say, but screams are the last thing that I need right now. Try to call for help and say goodbye to your expendable friend."

There were some seconds of silence. Penny must have accepted the terms, because Ratgard said, "very well," and proceeded to free the girl of the bandage.

"What do you want from me? Do you need money?" Penny asked.

"Money, money. Everyone talking about it. So predictable. No, I need some of the magical artifacts that your parents keep well hidden in that wretched house of theirs"

"You're just a charlatan, aren't you? You never studied at Ravenwood. Why do you need those things?"

"You are stating the obvious. Most magicians are charlatans miss, I am just a very good one. As for wanting artifacts… let's just say it's my hobby," he smirked, "Don't' worry, I'll soon have what I want and you'll be free. Be happy!"

"What about my friend? Let her go!" Penny said, her voice shaking in anger.

"I might," Ratgard said as he put the bandage back on the girl's mouth." But then again… I might not." He left the room as the girls stared at him in utter shock.

Time passed, and the feeble light that came out from under the door was shut down. Leaving the place in the dark. Many plans were created and discarded in Rose's mind. They could have tried to move the chairs together and find something to cut the ropes with, but they weren't able to do so without speaking to each other. There was no way they could find anything to help them at all either, the room didn't offer anything for them to use. A loud grumble in her stomach informed her that she hadn't eaten anything since lunch and that it would have been likely past dinner now.

 _"Ahem, aren't you forgetting someone?"_ Rocky interrupted her thoughts.

 _"Right! Rocky, you must help us! Find someone, tell them what happened!"_

 _"In case you have forgotten it, I am a rock. I can't tell people anything"_

 _"Oh, useless as always… can you at least cut the ropes?"_

 _"I take great pride in my smooth surface."_

 _"Go figure."_

There were no noises coming from the other room. Had Ratgard left the shop? Or did he sleep there? There wasn't much to work on. Actually, there was too little to work on.

Rose wasn't even sure that he'll free her or Penny after he got what he wanted. Her eyes felt humid. Before she could process it, she was silently sobbing. Sight blurred and lost. She had had big dreams. Most of them would have never come true either way, like traveling to Ravenwood, studying magic, becoming a wizard and visiting many worlds. Others were more down to earth, like her desire of writing a novel, collecting stories from around the spiral, maybe even become an archeologist, why not? Dreams didn't have limits. They were a mirror which distorted reality in funny ways, making her smile at the thought of reaching out inside it and change her life as she pleased.

Before she had realized it. A rock was thrown on her mirror. Her story didn't seem to have a good ending. She was… expendable. That meant that she would never see her parents again.

 _"Are you done with all the depression already?"_

 _"Please, leave me alone."_

A few moments of silence passed. _"Dreaming of what would come was really important to you huh?"_

 _"Stop talking"_

 _"Even if there is a chance for you to escape?"_

Rose shot her head up, blinking profusely to clear the blurred vision _"If this is a joke-"_

 _"No jokes. You have actually read of a pretty handy spell in the same book where you found the binding spell"_

Memories came back to her. There was a spell; it could untangle ropes. She had made a joke about it when she had read it.

Shaking her head she replied, _"I don't remember it, and Spells need words, wands, and gestures anyway."_

 _"Pfft, you know that it isn't true. All that magic needs is for you to believe it's possible. It needs you to dream."_

Rocky might have been right. Some books described magic as being possible in many ways. There was a reason why there were many branches of it.

 _"Alright… How do I do it? I absolutely can't remember any of it."_

 _"You might not remember, but you saw it. I can recall the memory, it'll need some time though. Think about that day."_

Rose nodded. Rocky was trying to help. It felt weird to have him saying something other than evil comments. Closing her eyes, she immersed herself in the memory. The happiness she had felt as she had cast the familiar binding spell, her chats with Penny her hopes for a life in Ravenwood.

Fear and helplessness disappeared, the room that was imprisoning her crumbled to dust, revealing the garden where she had passed many nice moments. She could use magic. It was true. The page came into her vision. The instructions clear as day.

She pronounced the formula in her mind, imagining the ropes untangling her. Rocky supported her, helped her focus, and guided her whenever her thoughts wandered astray.

When she opened her eyes, the rope was undone. A smile crept on Rose's face as she got up and undid the bandage.

 _"Master, for once I must tell you. Good job"_

 _"Rocky, for once I must tell you something too. Thank you,"_ she smiled.

"Rose… how did you?" Penny whispered once Rose removed the bandage from her mouth.

"No time to explain it now," Rose whispered back, slowly untying the ropes that held her friend hostage. "Bring the chair under the window, we'll escape from there."

With a nod of her head, Penny did as she was told to do and as silently as possible dragged the chair under the window. She stepped on it and in no time she was climbing out of the room. "Rose! What are you doing?!"

"I'll come in a few seconds."

The word exchange had been as animated as a whisper could be.

 _"Such a daring plan, master! Are you up to it? You are trembling in fear,"_ Rocky said cheerfully.

 _"I can't leave it here with him. It's not right…"_ Rose replied, walking to the door. She opened it with a creaking sound and held her breath until it stopped.

Rocky snorted. _"Looks like you have been caught by a very formidable mastermind. He forgot to close the door…"_

The shop was weakly illuminated by the light of torches outside in the street. The sound of someone snoring came from somewhere near the table.

 _"Does he sleep on the couch?"_ Rose asked; she was getting the hang of having mental conversations with her familiar.

 _"Maybe. I have already lost what little respect I had for his evil plans. You have been caught by an amateur. He doesn't even have minions around to try and stop you!"_

With swift and silent steps she made her way to the targeted object. The glass case containing the spiral key was now right under her nose. She opened it and stuffed the key in her pocket.

 _"I have no idea why I'm doing this!"_ She desperately thought.

 _"You are being honest with what you want out of your life, Master,"_ Rocky replied.

Ratgard moved in his sleep and said some incoherent phrases about slides of cheese. Without looking back, Rose returned to the room, Penny was waiting for her on the window's edge. "Rose stop fooling around and get out of there!"

Stepping on the chair, Rose grabbed Penny's hand and climbed out of the window. They jumped down and started to run in the deserted streets as fast as possible.

The Dreadful's mansion gate was easily recognizable once they made it back to Chelsea Court. In front of it, a small crowd was having an animated discussion.

 _"It seems that both of you are in trouble,"_ Rocky stated.

Rose and Penny slowed their run to a stop as their parents looked at them in surprise.

"Where have you been?!" Rose's mum, Elaine, exclaimed, marching towards them and putting her hands on her hips.

"We were... um..." Rose replied tentatively.

What happened then was an all-out cross-interrogation from all sides. Apparently, when they had gone missing, Rose's grandfather had called an old friend who was extremely good at finding missing people. Their adventure was so interesting that her grandfather's friend started to ask questions too.

"So, if I understand this correctly, Miss Green and Dreadful, you have escaped from the clutches of a rat named Ratgard, who wanted to keep you hostage in order to get magical artifacts," summed up a dog wearing a green deerstalker hat, coupled with a matching coat as he was smoking a pipe.

Rose felt as if her mind was on overload. She had just escaped from a dangerous criminal thanks to a rock, had a spiral key safely hidden in her pocket and the famous Sherlock Bones, the genius detective that she read all about, was interrogating her.

 _"When did my days became so weird?"_ She asked Rocky.

 _"If you are asking me, it means that you already know the answer."_

After the two girls were done explaining, Sherlock Bones decided to go investigate Ratgard's shop, taking with him a bunch of policemen ready to arrest him. According to him, there was evidence that Ratgard had been up to no good for the last two years, and might lead the police to the O'Leary's main hideout. After assuring him that the matter was now in capable hands, the great detective said goodbye and walked off.

"Rose, how could you do something as dangerous as that?!" Elaine said, shaking her head as her long blonde hair waved in the night. Her mother wasn't talking only about her decision to go meet a magician with Penny. Rose knew that she was referring to Penny and the Dreadfuls themselves. She was talking about magic.

Rose felt her father's firm grip on her hand as she was dragged home. She turned her head one last time to look at Penny, who was having her own discussion with her parents. Their eyes met, and without uttering a word, they knew that they might not have been able to see each other again for a very long time.

 **Poor Rose, from a problem to the next. I hope you liked this chapter, next one is in the works. If you want, leave a review, I do like them very much. :D**


	5. Pursuing the Dream

**I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs.**

 **Chapter 5- Pursuing The Dream**

" _They really won't leave you alone, will they?"_ Rocky laughed.

Rose was standing in the middle of her bedroom, facing her parents who had been scolding her for quite some time.

"Rose, I can't believe that. You have been lying to us about the fact of going to… their house!" her mum said.

Rose didn't reply, she kept her gaze low and squeezed Rocky in her hand with all her might. Neither her mom nor her dad was willing to believe that she had connected herself to a rock.

"We haven't raised you as a liar. You should have told us," her dad agreed. As Rose suspected, he was angrier of the fact that she had lied to them than practicing magic itself.

"If I told you, you wouldn't let me go!" she exclaimed, glaring at them.

"Of course not! They are wizards, they do dangerous things," her mum insisted.

"Then what? What if I want to become a wizard!? What if I'm good with magic?"

 _"That might be an overstatement. I actually think you are below average, Master,"_ Rocky stated.

Her mother shook her head. " We have already discussed this enough. You know what happened to the Anderson mansion, do you?"

"I know! But it's like saying all cats are robbers, or all rats are deceivers-"

"You have just been deceived by a rat!"

"It isn't true for all rats though! Otherwise, you would have to believe also that all humans are power-hungry conquerors by how Marleybonians depict us! So not all wizards must be evil either."

"It's not the same!"

"Mum, it is the same!"

"Elaine, let her calm down a bit. We'll discuss it later, she does have a few good points, even though she might have the profession and race a bit mixed up," her father interceded.

"Oliver, I suspect those few good points came out of your books," she said accusingly. "Rose, there is no way around it. You are grounded."

"After this, your chances of getting permission on going to that Ravenwood place are practically null. Are you aware of that?" her dad stated.

Rose gritted her teeth. "Yeah…"

After the door closed behind her father, she hardly could contain herself anymore, wetting her pillow with salty tears. She sobbed alone, in the complete silence of the room. Not even Rocky disturbed her.

After what felt like half an hour, the Rock finally spoke _. "Do you want to go to Ravenwood with all your heart?"_

"Yeah, I do," Rose muttered.

 _"Do you think that you'll never get to go?"_

"You heard them-"

 _"That's irrelevant. It depends entirely on you now."_

"What do you mean?"

 _"What do you think I mean? "_

She slowly got into a sitting position on the bed. Her hand searched her pocket. The golden key was there, it was her ticket to go to another world. She took it out and examined it closely. Her first thought was that it was truly a beautiful object, even though she couldn't pinpoint why.

 _"You probably think so because of what it means for you. I am way better than that golden key snob,"_ Rocky remarked.

"Don't tell me you are jealous of a key?" Rose smiled, regardless of her sad mood.

 _"I'm too awesome for being jealous,"_ Rocky replied indignantly.

Rose sighed. "Whatever… I have no idea why I took it though. It sure is nice to have it… but I risked much trying to get it."

 _"The same reason for not wanting to unbind me."_

"Hey! I want to unbind you!"

 _"Master, please, you would have succeeded if you really wanted to."_

Rose thought about it. She didn't like her familiar at all; it was annoying and would surely drag her into depression someday, but it was her first spell. It was the only thing that connected her to her dream. If she renounced to it, was she denying her own ambition?

She lifted the key upwards, looking at it with a smile. Ravenwood school year would have started soon. She imagined herself walking around campus with lots of friends, studying hard and getting good marks in whatever school she ended up in, maybe she could even invent some new spells once she grew up.

 _"Before you do anything, let me tell you something,"_ Rocky began.

"What?" she asked, taken away from her daydreaming by force.

 _"You are an annoying eleven-year-old girl who doesn't know the first thing about the Spiral. You have come across that key by sheer luck and not because you are destined to greatness. Your intelligence is average, as are your looks. You might also not be very good at magic and there will be obstacles in the way. Accept your limitations, and overcome them to pursue your objective. If there is something you are very good at is having impossible dreams."_

Rose took out Rocky and snapped at it. "Yeah, mortifying people sure seems to work to fuel ambitions!"

 _"I'm only telling what I see. When your mind distances itself from reality too much, it needs something to weigh it down to earth… and I am a rock."_

"Right. You are an annoying rock," she concluded. She knew what to do. The choice wasn't easy, but it was the best chance she could ever have in all her life. She got up and started looking for a bag.

Sometime later, Rose had finished packing everything she could possibly need in a black backpack. Penny had given it to her some time ago since she had one too many of them. Clothes, stolen food from the kitchen and some of her most prized possessions, everything found its place in the enchanted backpack without it becoming heavy or even remotely full.

 _"Are you taking that too?"_ Rocky asked when she took out a bunch of papers filled with her own writing.

"Sure. I can continue to write it during the weekends," she replied with a smile. Putting her first attempt at a novel inside the bag with the utmost care.

 _"That is if you'll ever get free weekends."_

She finished her preparations by writing a small letter to explain the reason for her escape to her parents and tell them not to worry for her. After dropping it on the desk, she was finally ready to leave.

The window opened up to the Marleybone streets, bathed in the scarce light coming from the moon and lanterns. Rose threw down a rope made of white, immaculate bed sheets and tested its durability.

 _"You are quite serious about this escape plan, Master."_

She shushed Rocky and took the bag, looking at her room one more time before heading for the window once again. Part of her was screaming that all of it was crazy. Her life was there with her family, she couldn't just throw it out of the window. Another part of her, the most hopeful one, remarked that she had just fundamentally done so by throwing the sheets.

 _"I should probably warn you…"_ Rocky said.

"Please don't distract me, I might fall down," Rose pleaded in a whisper, slowly descending from the window, saying goodbye to her old life forever.

 _"Master, I know that you want to be all dramatic and stuff, but this is important!"_

She bit her lip as she descended and asked directly in her mind. _"Okay, tell me then!"_

 _"How can I go about saying this…_ _Your knot was horrible…"_

Rose widened her eyes in surprise as the second bed-sheet, the one that would let her reach the ground safely without falling, loosened up and gravity took hold. She fell on her legs and stumbled to the ground with a muffled ouch. The sheet coming on top of her like a sort of death shroud.

 _"Eager of becoming a ghost, are we?"_ Rocky laughed.

Rose huffed in annoyance and got up, placing the sheet in front of the door before running away. In a few minutes, she arrived in front of the old gate leading to the Dreadful mansion. After a sudden stop in her tracks, she glanced down to the garden.

"Penny, change of plans, I'll wait for you in Ravenwood next year," she whispered with a giggle.

Escaping from home had given her a sort of new enthusiasm. She was sure that it was wrong to do so, but for once, she felt free, able to do anything.

She took out the key once more and happiness surged forward. She would become a wizard!

 _"Pay attention to not to get caught, Master."_

Rose turned around quickly as the realization struck her. Her grandfather's shop was just on the other side of the road. She considered saying goodbye to him, but he would probably stop her. There was something that was off though.

 _"That is indeed weird, master. Shouldn't he be at home, instead of in the shop? It's late at night."_

 _"Sometimes he tries to organize the shop… He sure loves being an antiquary,"_ she replied, walking away.

The streets were deserted, and Rose dashed through as fast as she could. It was the most dangerous thing she had ever done, apart from going to that magician's shop. That was Penny's idea though, so she wasn't completely responsible.

 _"Yeah right, is that your excuse?"_ Rocky said.

She ignored her familiar and stopped her run in the middle of the street, panting for air. A few minutes later she was ready for another sprint, but a sudden noise made her turn in fear. Someone was looking at her from an empty street, shrouded in darkness. The person might have been anything; cat, rat, dog, human, or even one of the urban legends that were rumored to stalk people at night.

 _"I advise you to run,"_ Rocky said. From its tone, Rose could tell that it was worried too.

Her legs started moving faster than they had ever done. Her throat felt dry and she wasn't sure if she could manage a scream, the thumping of her heart would have been probably loud enough anyway.

She heard the steps of someone running. No, there were more than one. She sprinted down the alley and found her way to Regent Square. Her mind was frantically looking for options. There weren't any policemen in sight, so she couldn't ask for help, she could scream, but nobody would come to her rescue. The only thing she could think of was getting to Wolfminster Abbey as fast as possible.

Her run to the cathedral went by without obstacles. She arrived at its doors and opened them with all her weight. It was said that those doors ought to always stay open for whoever wanted to look for salvation. Not that Rose believed in the great Red Hydrant or anything but she was thankful for the open doors.

The echoes of her swift steps resounded all throughout the place as she made her way down the aisles illuminated by streams of light filtered through the richly decorated windows. The door stood just below the glassy-image of the Red Hydrant, calling her forward.

A bang coming from behind her informed Rose, that whoever was coming after her, had opened the doors to the cathedral. She wasn't going to be stopped now. The only thing left to do was to tuck the key in the keyhole and open the door. Marleybone would be left behind.

With a smooth motion, the key found its way where it belonged, and Rose tried to turn it. It didn't budge.

 _"Quick Master! They're coming!"_

 _"I'm trying!"_ she replied, forcing the key to turn with all her strength. Panic took hold of her. She thought that they would get her. There was no way that she was going to escape a second time from criminals. She started to tell herself how stupid she had been to attempt her escape during the night.

 _"Turn it, Master! Turn it!"_ Rocky commanded, despite all her efforts.

Her heart seemed to stop when it happened. The key melted into golden liquid, streaming down the surface of the door in a puddle at her feet.

"Got you!" someone said as a sack was forced over her head.

 **Well, I didn't think that would happen... See you next time! (Author proceeds to run away as fast as possible to avoid spears and arrows launched at him.) You'll never get me!**


	6. Don't Give Up Hope

**Sorry for it taking a while, but the chapter is here now, I hope you enjoy :)**

 **I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs**

* * *

Chapter 6 – Don't give up hope

* * *

Her ears and eyes were utterly useless. She tried to shout, but she couldn't tell if her mouth emitted any sound. The only thing that she could feel was that she was being carried around like a sack of potatoes. She tried to kick whoever was carrying her, but for as much as she moved, it seemed it had no effect.

 _"It's no use, Master, this cat is bulky,"_ Rocky commented.

 _"You know what's happening?"_ she asked in her mind, grateful to have a way to communicate to the outside world that wasn't cut off.

 _"Sure. Ratgard, our dear friend, is back with two cat friends, they are very angry that Penny escaped, so they want to do something awful to you."_

 _"What do they want to do?!"_

 _"It's better if you don't know, Master. Trust me on this."_

The multiple books she had read on the O'Leary and other criminal groups inside the city came back to her; she had discovered her passion for detective stories last year. It took some convincing her dad making him share his collection with her, but in the end, he had given in.

Her favorite books were those narrating the adventures of Sherlock Bones, written by Watson, his assistant. The brilliant detective had dealt with those bands with his intellect more than once, managing to arrest their leader, the cunning Meowiarty. Everything was based on real facts and she trembled at the thought of what could happen to her if she had fallen in the hands of such people. Ratgard might have been a fool according to Rocky, but a criminal nonetheless.

 _"Don't panic. Remember how we escaped from him last time,"_ Rocky said.

 _"Okay… don't panic... Rose… don't panic… don't panic!"_ her thoughts were like a broken record.

 _"Master, this is beyond panicking…"_

 _"I know!"_

She made some long breaths, the air inside the sack getting stale. She tried to take the sack off with her hands, but it was as if it was glued to her head. The air was forcefully taken out of her lungs when something hit her hard in the stomach. She deflated and didn't move, squeezing her useless eyes in pain.

 _"That was a warning. They want you to stay still,"_ Rocky explained.

 _"Why can't I see or hear anything?"_

Her familiar seemed genuinely concerned when he replied, "It's because of the sack I believe. There is a spell that prevents any sound getting in and out."

 _"Okay then. Tell me what they are saying, you seem to have no problem hearing them,"_ Rose said, trying to come up with a plan.

Everything she could think of was that she had left the letter telling her parents that she had gone to Ravenwood. They wouldn't know that she was still in Marleybone, kidnapped by the very same megalomaniac rat from whom she had just escaped earlier that day.

 _"Hmm… blah, blah, blah, evil plan, blah, blah, Meowiarty, blah, blah, tip tap lessons, blah, blah, spoilers"_ Rocky replied.

 _"Please tell it to me in a way so that I can comprehend it!"_ she snapped.

 _"Oh well, it's the standard evil monologue. Nothing much to say. This Ratgard guy is earning some points though, he got minions now, and the simple fact that he is monologuing in the first place might put him in the average bad guy category! He's actually improving!"_

 _"Right, I should have known you'd warm up to the bad guy in the end,"_ she sighed.

 _"Says the damsel in distress who got caught two times by the same incompetent villain,"_ Rocky laughed.

 _"I wonder how he did it. Was he stalking me since I left home?"_

 _"It was because of the key. It was nothing more than an imitation imbued with a tracking spell."_

 _"What?! So I just did all of it for nothing?! And how do you know that?"_

 _"He's obviously gloating about it. You would find him rather annoying if you didn't have the luck of that sack on your head. Anyways, I can't understand why he put a tracking spell on it in the first place, probably it wasn't the only spell either."_

Rose's head was in utter chaos. If only she hadn't followed her dreams! If only had she stayed safely at home. Maybe she could have convinced her parents to visit Penny, or even going to Ravenwood.

 _"Wishful thinking on your part, Master."_

 _"What do you know, you're just a-"_

 _"A rock yes. Now please, concentrate on doing something to escape. This guy is a torture to hear."_

 _"O-okay."_

She breathed hard to find peace. Her heart was beating too fast, it's pounding distracting her from her thoughts. Ratgard's minion was dragging her without having any care at all, she bumped her head somewhere a couple of times and her stomach still hurt from the previous hit.

 _"Concentrate, Master."_

She felt Rocky's presence in her mind, trying to discard her superfluous thoughts. The garden came into view through her mind's eye. Penny's laugh near her. Things were unfocused and seemed to be about to flicker out of existence if she dared to move.

 _"That isn't concentrating, Master."_

 _"I know!"_

Her remark almost cost her the little focus she had. Shapes faded and deformed as she walked in her memories of the garden, Rocky held tight in her hand. With a very slow pace, she got to the hideout. The book was inside, on top of a small log. She reached for it and opened it.

 _"What do I have to look for?"_ she asked.

 _"I dare say that right now it's the right time for the teleportation spell,"_ Rocky replied.

She gulped. The book opened at her will, her mental image shaking with every step Ratgard's minion took.

Inside the book, words shifted uncomfortably to accommodate the image of a small golden object that hadn't been there before. A spiral key.

As soon as she laid her eyes on it, it melted into a puddle of gold. The liquid coming out of the picture and covering the words for the spell. Rose tried to clean it with her sleeve, but it only turned her clothing gold. And gold became the grass and plants, melting down around her. The ground became an ocean painted in the color of coins.

She let out a scream as she dropped the voluminous tome, it sank out of sight, like a stone in water. The garden faded away around her. The mental image shattered, and Rose was unceremoniously brought back to reality.

 _"You lost focus, try again!"_ Rocky scolded her.

 _"I-I can't,"_ she replied. There was no way she was going to relive that moment. The moment where all her hopes of becoming a wizard had turned out to be nothing more, but a stain on the cathedral's floor.

 _"You are relying too much on useless objects, Master."_

 _"Yeah, and what are you?"_

 _"I'm more than an object, and you know it."_

She tried to concentrate again, even though it was useless with her mind in disarray. The garden appeared and faded multiple times in her mind. Panic swallowing her whole once more.

 _"Okay, Master. Let's do without magic,"_ Rocky sighed.

 _"How? There is no way we can do something against them! I can't do anything with three of them and you're a useless rock!"_

 _"Now, now, Master. If there is a useless person here, it's certainly you, because you aren't using your head. I wouldn't be so sure that we can't do anything. A little useless girl and her awesome rock can do lots of things from my point of view."_

Rose wanted to shout at Rocky, blame it for everything that was happening to her. Tell it of the hundreds of reasons why the two of them couldn't do anything. Before she could send her thoughts, though, in the darkness of the sack, her mind started working. Options were weighed in her head and she did a quick inventory of her resources. Herself, Rocky and the contents of her bag.

 _"Rocky, I need your help."_

 _"The magic words?"_

 _"Ugh… please?"_

 _"Good girl."_

 _"Okay… um… How did you manage to appear in my pockets every time I threw you away?"_ she asked, trying to convey her thoughts as fast as possible.

 _"I'm your familiar, Master, I can appear in any pocket or bag that's on you,"_ Rocky replied.

 _"Perfect! Do you think that you can teleport to my bag?"_

 _"Sure. They are carrying you with it."_

Rose felt the weight in her pocket disappear and managed a slight smile. Maybe she could do something after all.

 _"Master, I'm there. What should I do now? Your thoughts are impossible to read. You need to clean up a bit in that head of yours."_

 _"I haven't thought that far yet!"_ she said.

 _"Well, just to remind you. There is nothing worthwhile apart from your clothes, food, and that amateurish novel of yours."_

Think. Think. What could Rocky do? It couldn't talk, it couldn't help her knock people out or anything any human could do. It could roll though.

 _"Rocky, where are we?"_

 _"Still around Regent's Square. They're going slow to avoid being spotted."_

 _"Okay… Um.. Right! Take the first page of my novel and envelop yourself in it."_

 _"Well… that's a weird thing to do. I'll need some glue for that."_

 _"Glue? Is there some in there?"_

 _"Yep, you seem to have forgotten it inside when you did that horrible work of art with Penny."_

 _"Hey, It wasn't horrible! It came out pretty nice… Wait, you aren't going to break the container, right?!"_ She didn't get an answer until a few seconds later.

 _"Glue container broken and page fixed on my awesomely smooth surface."_

 _"Ugh…"_ Rose shook her head slightly, trying to focus on how to escape. There was no use in thinking of how the glue would have covered all the contents of her bag. _"Jump out of the bag and find Sherlock Bones, he's the only one who I think can understand. Be discreet about it though."_

 _"Oh, I understand your plan now. Okay Master, off I go. Geronimo!"_

Then Rose heard nothing more, probably her telepathic link with Rocky didn't work on long distances. Time passed, and she was finally placed somewhere on an unknown floor.

The sack stayed on her head as her hands were bound by something she thought were ropes. She hoped with all her heart that her familiar would have reached the detective. The first page of her novel started out with someone being kidnapped, how ironic. She hoped it was a clear hint. At least, for the infallible detective depicted in the books, it should have been.

Rocky's ability to always know where to find her, should have been put to good use for something that wasn't harassing her for once. Sherlock Bones would have just needed to follow it.

Some other time passed. Why wasn't Rocky already there? She was starting to worry.

 _"Rocky… If you're around here… somewhere. Please answer!"_

Her annoying familiar didn't answer.

 _"Rocky, don't leave me here alone! Please…"_

Just when she had started to despair, two hands removed the sack, sound and sight returned to her at once. Sherlock Bones stood in front of her, pipe in one hand and the sack in the other. Behind him, in the middle of a weakly lighted room, several policemen were intent on handcuffing three bulky cats and a rat.

"I'll have my vengeance child! Don't doubt it!" Ratgard said, before being dragged away.

Rocky finally spoke _, "I scared you hahaha. You should have heard your pleas for help, master. They were glorious!"_

 _"Was that supposed to be a joke?"_ she mentally asked, anger rising and replacing fear.

 _"Yep. And it was fun."_

Rose ignored it and faced Sherlock Bones. The detective didn't wait long to present his deduction "I take you ran away from home to go to Wizard City, right? Your parents must be worried sick."

"Yeah…"

"I am sorry for not being able to arrest Ratgard earlier. We went to his shop, but found out he left before we could get to him."

Before Rose could process it. She was being brought home by policemen. Along the way, she asked if Sherlock Bones did get her message, after all, he might have arrived there on a stroke of luck. She wasn't going to admit that Rocky did a good work without having strong evidence that it actually did something.

"Your message did get to me, although it was the first time that I got one glued to a rock. By the way, the beginning of your story was quite good miss, I hope I'll get a chance to read it someday."

"It's not finished yet," she blushed.

"I see… I'll wait then."

 _"That was a tad bit anticlimactic, don't you think?"_ Rocky asked, breaking the silence that had fallen as Rose, Mr. Bones and two policemen walked down the road.

 _"Why? What should have happened?"_ Rose asked, her anger for her familiar's joke not yet subsided.

 _"You should have fought your fears and finally cast that spell. You would have learned something for once, Master."_

 _"Well, I'm glad I didn't have to do anything like that, and I did learn something,"_ Rose stated.

 _"Really? What?"_

 _"That the spell wasn't needed,"_ she replied.

 _"Hmm… you might be onto something there after all. There will always be enough time to face your broken dreams later. Another day then, we have to wait for that wannabe villain to get out of prison first. Hey, do you know how to plan an all out breakout from jail? It could be fun!"_ Rocky said.

 _"No way Rocky, I'm not doing that."_

 _"As if you could even organize it, Master."_

 _"Shut up."_

The well-known Dreadful mansion gate came into view once again, and her grandfather was walking near it, probably going back home after closing the shop. He widened his eyes in surprise as soon as he saw Rose and hurried to approach her.

"Rose, what happened?" he asked, his concerned gaze shifted from the policemen to Sherlock Bones and then to her.

"Um…"

"Maybe it's for the best if you explain it to him miss Green. I'll be off to check on something," the detective said, turning on his heels and walking down the road out of sight, much the same of how he had done earlier that day. The two policemen that had escorted her back followed suit, after making it clear that she would be called to testify in the future, although that might not have been necessary. Ratgard had committed many crimes, and Newgate prison would surely be his new home.

* * *

Rose explained everything she had passed through to her grandfather. The shop filled only with her voice as she told him about her meetings with Penny, her accidental spell and her misadventures with Ratgard.

"You passed through quite a lot of trouble, Rose," he said, cleaning up his round glasses.

"Yeah, now I get it. Studying magic won't be something that'll do anytime soon. Actually, never. The spiral key was too good to be true."

"I didn't know you would give up hope so easily," her grandfather chuckled, the wrinkles stretching as he did so.

"Aren't you angry at me for getting in so much trouble?" she asked.

"Did I say I was?"

Rocky made a weird noise as if choking on something and exclaimed _,"wait- wait a minute. What kind of grandfather do you have Rose? He kind of seems happy for you getting into trouble!"_

Rose herself had the same question popping into her mind.

"Don't look at me like that! I too have been young once, and your troubles are nothing compared to what I did in my youth," he said, his vision seemingly looking far away.

"What did you do grandpa?" she asked in disbelief, not quite sure she could handle anything else. She stared at her grandfather for a few seconds, taking in his short white hair and beard, round glasses and soft brown eyes as if she didn't recognize him.

He waved his hand dismissively and took out a golden key from his pocket."That's not important right now. What is important is what you'll do with this late birthday gift. I had to look everywhere to find it!"

"Is that a spiral key?!"

"Take it."

Rose cupped her hands and jumped slightly as her grandfather gave her the key. She eyed it suspiciously as if it would melt away as soon as she believed it was true."How did you find it?"

"Oh, I had it for quite some time in the shop. You'll be surprised to know what kind of things find their way here on a daily basis."

"But mum and dad…"

"I'll explain it to them. Go and live your adventure, Rose!" Her grandfather chuckled, the sound of laughter suddenly cut-off as Rose expressed her silent thanks with a heartfelt hug.

* * *

It was time. Rose took a deep breath and took out the golden key, tucking it with shaky hands inside the keyhole. She slowly turned back to her grandfather, who was waving her goodbye with a bright smile. She waved back.

 _"Come on, Master, be quick about it!"_ Rocky complained.

She didn't respond to Rocky, determined to avoid her familiar ruining the moment. Her gaze slowly shifted back to the spiral door standing at the center of Wolfminster Abbey. Slowly, she turned the key. With a click and a creak, the door opened, and Rose stepped on the other side, to Ravenwood. Towards her dream.


	7. The Exam

**Author's notes: I haven't updated in a while, but finally next chapter is here. The next ones will probably come out weekly as they did before my small vacation. Oh, and thank you for the review Iron-Ninja.**

 **I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs.**

Chapter 7 – The Exam

The large crowd made up of students and parents waited patiently in the middle of the road. Rose stood at the borders of it, near the Myth school, her nose planted in a book. As she turned the pages in anxiety, she moved in circles around Ivan, the Myth tree.

"Are you nervous, little one?" Ivan asked.

"Yeah, quite a lot actually. I was so set on getting to Ravenwood, that I forgot there was an entrance exam!" she exclaimed, venting out her frustration.

"That seems like quite a bad predicament you've got yourself there. I wish you good luck."

"Thanks, Ivan, at least you support me, unlike someone I know…"

" _Are you talking about someone in particular, Master?"_

" _Playing dumb, are we?"_

" _Yeah, it's quite fun playing it, not fun when you're actually one. Master should know all about that."_

She didn't answer, made a run for the closest available chasm, and tossed Rocky in the void below, marching back to Ivan still fuming in anger.

Ivan widened his single eye in surprise when he saw her coming back."Is everything alright, young one?"

"Yeah, sure."

She had gotten used to being called 'young one' by mostly anyone and anything around Ravenwood by now. It had been two days since she had timidly opened the door to Headmaster Ambrose's office and asked to be enrolled in his school.

The headmaster had asked her how she had gotten to Wizard City and she had told him, conveniently keeping her mouth shut on her misuse of magic which resulted in Rocky's binding.

After hearing her out, Ambrose had accepted to have her try to enroll, giving her a room in the dormitory for free.

The first thing she had done, had been a tour of the school, getting to know all the trees and merrily hopping as she went to talk to each one of them.

The second thing she had done, had been a mindless run in circles in a panic, when Blossom, the Life tree, had reminded her of the entrance exam by wishing her good luck for it.

The third thing she had done, had been closing herself in her room with as many books as she could lay her hands on, throwing Rocky in the rubbish bin whenever he dared to question her sanity.

"Do you think the written exam will be hard?" she asked Ivan.

"It is, many young ones come each year to attend."

She choked, "I'm screwed."

" _Not necessarily, Master. Do you remember that I can recall anything you've seen before? No reason to actually study it, ha!"_ Rocky said, his voice starting to talk as soon as its weigh filled Rose's pocket.

" _I can't use you… Wouldn't that be cheating through magical means? It's not allowed!"_

" _Don't make a fuss of it. You'll be as advantaged as anyone having a very good memory!"_

" _But what if someone finds out? They'll send me back to Marleybone. I'm not sure they would accept people who dabbled irresponsibly in magic before coming here. That's why I didn't tell the headmaster about you in the first place!"_ she argued.

" _Meh, do as you like,"_ Rocky concluded. He then completely changed the subject, _"You'd never believe what I saw down in that chasm!"_

Rose shook her head. _"fool me once. Not going to fall for another trick again."_

" _But the swim was enjoyable! And this is different, there is something amazing down there."_

" _As amazing as the supposed rare fish you told me was swimming in the lake? Not listening!"_

Rose started up a tune in her mind to try and cover her familiar's voice. She wasn't up to the risk of being thrown in the chasm by Rocky on her exam day.

The tower's door swung open and a bald man dressed in a golden tunic with blue trimmings came out, glaring at them as if he would have given anything to be anywhere else.

"All of those who wish to take the exam, please come in. If you aren't sure you'll be able to pass, please, don't even try and avoid wasting my time," he said.

Although a bit bothered by them, nobody seemed to take the man's words to heart and follow his advice. The professor shook his head, muttering something about last causes and immature little people as he led them inside.

Rose found a place for herself on the right side of the room, just behind a boy whose bright red hair stood out among the others. The bald man, who introduced himself as Professor Cyrus Drake, handed out the tests and sat down behind a desk, facing them directly with an accusing scowl.

Rose's hand found its way to her pocket, almost touching Rocky's smooth surface as she eyed the parchment that would decide if she would become a wizard or not.

She felt as if her lungs were kept from expanding properly by an invisible hand, leaving her out of air, and a lump in her throat prevented her from talking. She was grateful that she didn't have to sit an oral exam, since she suspected that she would have gotten a glaring zero as a final mark in such a case.

The man spoke once more, "you can now begin. Any means of cheating won't be tolerated and will end up with the nullification of the exam."

With a gulp, Rose turned her paper and gave a look at the questions. They were mainly on general knowledge, nothing that she would normally find difficult.

Today it was different though. Her mind was like a blank slate as if someone had cleaned up all the information when she entered the room. Her breathing became more irregular as she frantically tried to scribe down the solution to a simple Math problem that she would have found easy in normal circumstances.

A little while later, a bunch of useless scribbles filled the blank parchment, not the ordered calculations she usually did to get to a solution. She skimmed through it once more. It didn't sound right. Why didn't it sound right?

Her writing was disorderly, she was losing important information. Innocent numbers that would be essential lost themselves in a jungle of ink. Chaos ensued.

With a gentle pressure at the borders of her mind Rocky's voice reached her, _"Master, you need to calm down. The test is easier than we both thought, you shouldn't have any problems with it!"_

She wasn't listening. Resisting the urge to run away, she hastily turned the pages, looking for questions on the history of the Spiral.

She abruptly stopped at a question that asked how the spiral was created. What could she answer there? There were many theories on how the spiral came to be, and she couldn't discern the truth from the fantasies.

Should she answer it with how she believed it was created? Truth to be told, she couldn't tell what she really believed.

Rose could have answered it with how Wizard City thought it was created, seemingly her best bet for an answer, but then, wasn't she dismissing what she had read on the books in Marleybone? Scientists believed in a large bone shattering the first world. Rose couldn't tell if it was crazier than Titans destroying it in a war. Her head rested in her hands as she bit her lips. She had already wasted lots of time and didn't give a single answer yet.

Skimming through many of the questions, she found out that even though she knew that she should have been able to recall the answers, her mind wasn't responding at all. It was filled to the brim with questions on what would happen if she failed. She had gone through a lot to get there, and if she failed, she wouldn't have permission, let alone the will, to touch a wand for the rest of her days.

Her mom would have scolded her for even attempting such a foolish test, and her grandfather would have probably been very disappointed by her. Her father might have accepted her results though, and that might have hurt her more than anything. She was way more than a zero on paper!

A pair of eyes glared at her, she felt the smugness of the professor gluing onto her. He knew she was going to fail.

" _I am here if you need me, Master,"_ Rocky said.

" _I'm not going to-"_

" _And you are going to fail for your stubbornness."_

" _But it's wrong…"_

" _Why?"_

" _Because I don't want to become a wizard by cheating!"_

" _Then you shouldn't become a wizard."_

" _Maybe it's for the best..."_

" _Pft, Master, You can't lie to me. You really want to wave a stupid wand and utter nonsense to make things happen. The real question is, why?"_

" _I…"_

" _Is it because it's cool?"_

" _Nooo! That's not it!"_

" _Master…"_

" _Well, Maybe a little… but now I want to become a wizard to demonstrate that magic can be used to do good."_

" _What made you change your mind?"_

" _Um… I guess seeing Ratgard using magic for his own selfish and evil reasons gave me perspective… I want to prove that wizards aren't like that! They can't be!"_

" _I kind of get it… I don't want wizards to be compared to such a loser too!"_

Rose rolled her eyes at such a heartfelt exclamation from her familiar, even though she found herself listening to what it had to say.

" _I think you can do it, Master. You just need to focus and I'll help you with that."_

A sudden clearance of mind made her reconsider most of the questions she had been attempting to answer, her breathing more regular and her thoughts coming in a semblance of order. Rose instantly knew what she had been doing wrong with Maths, and resorted to answering in a complete way in the history of the spiral questions, avoiding world bias as much as possible, even though that would have meant giving extremely long answers to everything.

" _Rocky… I told you not to help me!"_

" _I'm not helping you by giving you free information. I'm just helping you focus on the task at hand,"_ it replied.

" _Alright…"_ Rose said, giving a last glance to the professor, who looked like a vulture waiting for his prey's last breath. She shuddered at the thought.

Taking the quill in her hand, Rose started writing. Everything came to her easily now, and although she hadn't studied everything the test asked of her, she managed to answer questions with what she thought could have been good answers.

That was until the bald man sat up and announced, "Time is up, please stop writing as I come and get the tests."

Rose blinked in confusion. She didn't notice that much time passing at all.

" _Time did pass, Master. You used up most of it being stubborn and not answering to anything at all,"_ Rocky filled her in.

Rose bit her lip again in nervousness. She hadn't answered nearly as much as she should have been able to. Could she still pass after all?

With these thoughts, she got up with the rest of the class, ready for the second part of the entrance exam.

The line in front of the Storm school was quite long, and Rose hadn't been able to find a good spot, having to wait quite a bit for her turn.

" _So this year is Storm and Myth huh?"_ she thought.

" _Seems like it,"_ Rocky said.

Every year the exam was divided up between two opposite schools. With a quick search, she had found out that last year the theory exam had been sat in the Ice school, while the practice in the Fire one.

" _That Ambrose guy really won't treat a school above the others,"_ Rocky commented.

" _Sure, It's important too. Mrs. Dreadful told me all about the schools' rivalries. In order to keep peace, is necessary treating everyone the same."_

" _Meh, chaos would be far more fun, don't you think it too?"_

Rose rolled her eyes and stepped forward when her name was called. As rigid as a statue, she walked inside, the door closing behind her. A frog in a a suit and a top hat was waiting for her on the professor's desk and behind him, a crystal orb, similar to the one she had seen in Ambrose's office.

"Welcome, Rosemary Green, please take a sit," the frog said, pointing to a chair in front of the desk.

Rose did as she was told, wondering if that guy was one of the professors there. Frogs were common in Marleybone, but she hadn't seen one practicing magic yet. Asking to her examiner what were his qualifications didn't sound like a great idea though, so she simply went with it.

"Do you know what you'll have to do?"

"Just place my hands on the orb right? It should just measure my mana quantity," Rose answered, having researched the practice exam thoroughly the day before.

"Good. Now, if you may."

Rose nodded and placed the hands on the smooth glassy surface. She felt magic flowing through her, and a soft blue glow started to shine from the orb.

" _Aw, you don't really have that much mana, do you?"_ Rocky commented with a laugh.

" _Shut up, I think it's just below average…"_ Rose remarked in her mind, trying to keep a straight face in front of the examiner.

She didn't know how to 'read' that glow in the orb, but the frog seemed to be able to, because he scribbled something on a piece of parchment and said, "good job, Rosemary, the exam is finished. Wait for your results later today,"

"Alright, thanks, Professor," she replied, hoping that he really was a professor.

The crowd outside of the headmaster's office wouldn't let her pass. The list of who had sat the exam was exposed for everyone to see in the inner courtyard. Headmaster Ambrose had personally come out to put it on the wall a few minutes earlier.

Sneaking around people and finding a path to the front, Rose slowly looked up, her heart thumping in anticipation. A red line divided who had passed from who hadn't. Marks weren't public, so she wouldn't know how much anyone had gotten.

Her gaze automatically started from the top, where the name of a certain Alex Stormheart triumphed above the rest.

" _Aren't you dreaming a bit too much, you'd be quite a bit under that,"_ Rocky mocked.

She slowly lowered her gaze, names not registering completely in her mind. Her heart started to beat faster as she approached the middle _"Kane Fireblade, Jared Iceweaver, Mindy Pixiecrown, Emer, Shard, Regina Flametalon,"_ she continued to read, her thoughts focused solely on the names.

" _Shard? The parents had quite the fantasy for that!"_ Rocky laughed.

Rose continued to read down the list, her thoughts taking top priority on Rocky's comments _, "Where is it? Where is my name?!"_

The red line was approaching, a few names left. Thumps from her heart almost choked her, her eyes skimming down in hope.

Her heart stopped. Tears filled her eyes. With trembling legs, she turned around and started a desperate run.

Her name was there; just below the red line. She had failed.


	8. A Tempting Offer

**And here is chapter 8 one day earlier. I preferred to do so because tomorrow I might not have been able to post at all. So better have it earlier than later, don't you think so too? :D**

 **As usual, reviews or any kind of support, surprisingly including something as wild as reading the story, is appreciated, and I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs.**

Chapter 8 – A Tempting Offer

Plop. Plop. Plop.

The umpteenth peeble found its way in Rose's hand, just to be thrown in the lake. Her eyes stung, tears barely kept at bay.

Plop.

She didn't make it far from campus, sitting down near a bridge in front of a waterfall. Sobs escaping her as she repeatedly attacked the calm water surface with her rocks.

 _Why did I have to get those doubts during the exam? Why couldn't I score higher?_ she kept thinking as ripples formed on the water's surface.

" _You lost yourself in doubts when you should have just focused on the present,"_ Rocky said.

Her hand went to her pocket, almost taking her familiar out. She found out that she didn't even have the strength nor the will to throw it, withdrawing her hand and leaving Rocky alone. She just wanted to curl up into a ball and avoid any thoughts on her current situation. She wanted to avoid thinking that she'd be heading back home soon.

"Are you alright?" A voice asked, making her slowly turn towards its source.

A boy was looking at her. Curly white hair and a pair of dark brown eyes were the first things she saw while looking at him. Only when he talked again, did she notice his choice of dark purple clothes.

"Mind if I sit near you?" he asked, a hint of a smile on his face. Rose couldn't tell if he was making fun of her or was there to try and cheer her up.

"If you want to," she replied, wiping her eyes the best she could, making a great effort to look far into the distance to avoid eye contact.

"So… how did the exam go?" he asked.

"How do you think it went?" she snapped.

"Pretty bad, I guess. What's your name?"

Rose would have liked to punch him in the face just for talking to her, but she found herself stuttering a reply," I-I'm Ro- Rosemary Green."

"Alex Stormheart, nice to meet you," he said, giving out his hand for her to shake.

" _He's the one who got the top score!"_ Rocky whistled,not hiding his intrigue to such a development.

Rose kept on staring in the distance, seriously considering getting up and running away to somewhere where she could keep on being miserable by herself. A place where the top student wouldn't find her.

"So, what do you want from me?" she replied coldly.

Outright ignoring her open hostility, he replied, "you're the one who almost got in, right?"

"Yeah, laugh at me if you want," she said, sending the boy a glare that would have given Penny a run for her money.

"I'd never do that! I'm here to ask you something."

Rose was quickly getting tired of talking to him. It was a miracle that she hadn't started to shout yet.

" _Are you jealous of him, Master?"_ Rocky asked with a laugh.

In truth, she was, she wanted to be above that red line.

"What is it you want to ask me?" she ended up saying.

"Only… What does being a wizard mean to you?"

She instantly got up, and shouted, "what if I don't want to tell?!" How did he dare to ask her something that she couldn't hope to dream about anymore?!

Alex squirmed in his place. "I just wanted to know… I'm not making fun of you or anything. I told you I'd never do that!"

" _I've got a good feeling about this, Master, just tell him,"_ Rocky intervened.

" _But…"_

" _Just do it. You are used to being ridiculed by me after all, he can't do much to get at you."_

"Alright…" she paused, sitting down once again. "I want to become a wizard to demonstrate that magic can be used for good."

After a small pause, Alex muttered, "Pretty childish, but better than nothing."

"Hey!" she shouted in reply.

He lifted his head as if he had completely forgotten about her being there, "Oh, sorry, thinking out loud."

That was when Rose couldn't stand him anymore. She got up a second time and started marching away, steps fueled by the boiling anger consuming her from inside.

"Hey! Come on, don't do like that! It's not like it isn't childish…" The boy chased her, trying to keep up as he tried to stop her from getting away.

Rose stopped in her tracks, firmly planting her feet while trying to glare the boy down to oblivion, "leave me alone! Didn't you just say I was childish?"

"Didn't say you were… only your ambition," Rose was about to turn around once more, but the boy stepped in front of her to try to hinder her progress, quickly adding "…Which is alright, I forgive you on that one."

Rolling her eyes, Rose tried to sidestep him, something which was easier said than done, since the boy would always move right in front of her, anticipating her movements.

"Just what is it you want from me?!"

"Nothing much. I just wanted to ask your help with something," He said, his expression serious as the words came out.

"It's a no," Rose said, moving him sideways.

"But-" Alex tried to stall her by grabbing her arm.

"No." she repeated, freeing herself from his grip.

"Even if there is a chance for you to get enrolled if you help me out?" Alex shouted behind her.

Rose slowly turned towards him, her heart skipping a beat for what he had just told her, "I'm listening."

 **Alex Stormheart asked Rose for help with something, what could it be? You'll know next week, stay tuned! Um… keep reading!**


	9. The Headmaster's Motives

**I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs.**

* * *

Chapter 9 – The Headmaster's Motives

* * *

"Can you please tell me again why are we doing this? Isn't it very, very wrong or something?" Rose asked, eyeing suspiciously the boy who was helping her climb through the window.

"Isn't it a bit late to ask that?" Alex replied, lifting his eyebrow as she finally managed to get inside the room.

As silence met his question, he explained everything all over again, "We're looking for the exam marks. I think they are being rigged to have some students be admitted without sitting the exam at all."

"And you think that because?" Rose's question had its roots in a sudden awakening to reality.

She had somehow stopped listening to the boy while he was telling her his plan, thinking about how she would have been able to become a student if she helped him with whatever he had in mind. The only thing she had heard before her mind made a one-way trip to fantasy land, was that according to Alex, some students didn't sit the exam, and their score had been falsified to put them above the red line. That meant that she could have been among the ones that had actually passed, but her rightful spot had been taken by a cheater.

"I counted everyone at the Myth school, and comparing their number to that of the list placed outside, I noticed that the list has two names in excess. That means those names were added later, and those two students haven't sat the exam at all," Alex said proudly.

"…Or they simply didn't take it in the Myth school?" Rose offered, wondering what had gotten into her to put her in such a situation. She was blindly following a top student in a crazy quest that was probably all in his head.

"That can't be. There are rules that establish that new Ravenwood students should take the exam only in the schools chosen for the occasion, all together on the same date."

"Right… So, are we talking about the fact that you were passing time by counting people in a room?"

"Is that what you got out of it?!"

"Um… you don't have many friends… do you?"

Alex groaned and made his way to Ambrose's desk. The room was utterly silent, the headmaster nowhere in sight, leaving the papers defenseless.

Rose had a hard time believing that there weren't any spells to prevent people from sneaking right into the office and stealing stuff. If she did ever become a student, she'd have a talk with the headmaster on it. A complete lack of security was a very big deal to her.

"Start looking," Alex ordered, pointing to an archive full of stacked scrolls and papers, as he started opening the desk drawers one by one.

She sighed and started taking out random papers. There wasn't anything that caught her interest, most of them were documents on classes' organization and application forms filled in years ago.

"Why are you doing this? Is it for fun or what?" she asked, taking out another bunch of papers.

"I'm doing this because people studied hard for the exam, and there is no excuse for it to be rigged, admitting people without any form of meritocracy whatsoever. Aren't you angry, knowing that someone took the place that belongs to you?" Alex replied.

In fact, Rose was quite angry about it. She had risked her safety by coming to Wizard City, worked hard for the exam and put up with Rocky. The thought of someone taking her place by doing absolutely nothing was something she found ridiculous.

 _"Do you think I'm doing the right thing, Rocky?"_ she tried to fish for an answer in her mind.

Rocky's voice replied after a few seconds, _" You are fighting for what you want, master. It's neither right nor wrong. Yawn..."_

Rocky's voice seemed sleepy and the final yawn alarmed Rose. Rocky never slept! She frantically looked around as if something out of place could tell her what was wrong. The feeling of her eyelids getting heavier alarmed her. She had to act fast.

"We have to get out, now!" She said to Alex, who was busy trying to open one of the multiple drawers.

"Just a sec." The boy took out what looked like being a small golden card. He muttered a few words and the drawer opened up on its own, "Found them!"

"What was that?" She asked, the question coming out in a calm tone that didn't seem to belong to her, whose mind was desperately trying to get out as fast as possible.

A feeling of peace washed over her, washing away all the worries that kept her on guard. Her attempt to walk towards Alex seemed irrelevant, her mind telling her to sit down, letting her eyes close. Ambrose would eventually come to wake them up, it wasn't a big deal.

"It's something my uncle invented recently…yawn" Alex attempted to say, yawning at the end of the sentence as he slowly blinked with sleepy eyes.

Rose shook her head, trying to shake off the feelings that forced their way into her mind.

 _"There's a spell on the room…yawn… It is messing with us,"_ Rocky said.

"Let's go Alex!" she said, trying to shake the boy from his drowsiness while wondering why was she always the target of some sort of sleep spell.

With a great effort, Alex got up and nodded. The two of them made their way to the nearest window looking like a pair of particularly slow-moving sloths. The stack of papers held tight under Alex's arm.

Alex was the first to climb out of the window, but when he did so, the exam papers stopped mid-air, falling from Alex's grasp as if they had encountered some kind of invisible wall.

Rose gathered up the fallen papers and attempted to give them to Alex. Her hand stopped moving, right before passing through the window, the papers wouldn't leave the office.

 _"Master, just go already!"_ Rocky scolded her.

Rose nodded, and under Alex's wide eyes, she dropped everything on the floor, attempting to climb out too. It was then, that the room started losing its shape and disappearing around her, leaving only an immense white void. Nothing could be seen as far as her eyes strained, only an unnatural blankness.

With a start, Rose opened her eyes.

She was standing in front of Headmaster Ambrose, who was comfortably sitting at his desk, hands joined as he looked at her with a warm smile.

"Headmaster Ambrose! We were… I was… Um…" She attempted to say, words failing her.

"Do not worry, child. I know what you were attempting to do and your reasons for doing so," Ambrose calmly replied.

Rose wanted to bury herself somewhere to avoid the shame she was feeling, the huge piles of books on the floor suddenly becoming rather inviting.

"I…um… I'm sorry…" she muttered.

"No, Rose, I am sorry. What Alex noticed, is indeed the truth. Two students have joined Ravenwood without sitting the exam," Ambrose seemed tired as he said that, his monocle slightly misplaced on his eye.

"But why?" She asked.

Ambrose slowly started his explanation, "It is of the utmost importance for them to enroll this year, even though I cannot tell you much about my reasoning, I can assure you it is for the best."

"But… But… What's the point of the exam if you can decide when people can just skip it?"

"That is quite a good question indeed. To answer that, we should have a little talk on the foundation of Ravenwood."

Rose knew quite a bit about Ravenwood's history, having obsessed over it since she had discovered its existence.

"It was created to protect Bartleby, right?" she said, recalling the old books in the Dreadful's library.

Ambrose nodded, "That is right. Bartleby and the Spiral, need to be safeguarded, and wizards are the best suited for the job."

"Then why did you make such an exam in the first place? Can't magic be taught to everyone?"

"That would be the ideal situation. You must understand though, that the school has limited resources, we can't take more students than we can handle due to the dangerous nature of magic."

Rose didn't exactly see magic as dangerous, but she knew what could happen when it wasn't used properly, so she just kept silent as the headmaster kept on talking.

"Many people seek the power of wielding magic, the exam is just a way to select those that would study hard to wield it."

"I understand, but even more so… why skip such an exam?"

"I will ask you a question, Rosemary Green, answer as you see fit," Ambrose said, his words carrying a heavy weight of importance.

"What do you think would happen if the school has to make room for a student who could potentially be the key to solving great trouble brewing in the Spiral? A student who wouldn't be able to pass the test because of a wide range of reasons."

"Well…" she started, the words getting out of her with difficulty, "I guess that since the school's top priority is protecting the worlds… The student should be taken in regardless of what the test says. So that's why? There is some kind of danger that should be avoided at all costs?"

Ambrose nodded, the expression on his face one of seriousness and his ancient eyes stuck on Rose as he asked, "If I told you that you wouldn't be able to enroll because of that very reason, what would you do?"

Rose thought about it, taking hold of Rocky in her pocket. If she didn't pass because of such a reason, it mainly meant that she had had bad luck, she would be able to learn magic if she studied hard enough.

The answer was clear in her mind. "I'd look for other places to learn, I'd get books or anything that could help me out. I can't renounce to it if I know I could succeed!"

"And that is why, I'll keep you in Ravenwood," Ambrose sighed.

"What?" she asked, dumbfounded. Was he telling her that she was being accepted for her determination?

"You are too far into magic to try and look for power on your own, it would destroy you. I have made that mistake once, with a very talented student of mine. Sending her away had been a huge mistake, she became overwhelmed by her own magic, became nothing more than a pawn of it."

Rose felt her blood run cold. From that last statement, it was clear that Ambrose had deduced something about her use of magic before getting to Ravenwood.

"So, you are telling me that I should stay here because I might turn out to be evil? But people wield magic all the time, it isn't dangerous."

"Not evil, but misguided. That is something everyone, no matter how pure, risks while dabbling in the magical arts. As far as wielding magic, more often than not, the natural outcome is to become ourselves a weapon that magic wields."

"That sounds pretty ominous… Um…but how can I stay here without passing the exam?" She asked, unconsciously making a step forward.

"To tell the truth, the number of questions you answered to wasn't enough. The quality of your answers might make up for it though. It is clear from how you approached every question that you already know something every wizard should always keep in mind, but more often than not, it is forgotten."

"Which is?" she asked.

"Every world would give a different answer to the same question. The arrogance of coming up with the one and true answer, usually leads to the wizard's undoing."

"Oh…" she paused, it seemed that she was going to stay at Ravenwood after all. "Wouldn't it be weird for me to start coming to the lessons even though I haven't passed?"

"Do not worry about it, something will be done. Despite my old age, my opinion is still held in high regard in the city council."

Rose still wasn't convinced, something wasn't right in all of it. "Why am I the only one who should stay here? Other people might be salty over the fact that they didn't pass!"

"You are right, but few people can boast about being able to summon such a unique familiar as yours," Ambrose replied, subtly shifting his gaze to look directly at her pocket.

"Y-you know about that?!"

"I have known about it since you first came here, that is why there is something that leaves me perplexed. Why didn't you use your familiar during the test? It might have helped you, and in truth, I was sure you would have used it."

"I-I didn't want to cheat!" Rose exclaimed, her loud reply echoing in the room in indignation.

"I see. Maybe you are not like after all…" Ambrose muttered under his breath.

A sudden thought crossed Rose's mind, popping out at the sudden realization that Rocky hadn't spoken at all in Ambrose's presence, as if to hide himself from him, "Headmaster Ambrose… If you know about Rocky… Would you be able to unbind it?"

Ambrose chuckled,"That is something I cannot do. I encourage you to research familiars and maybe you will understand what Rocky truly is. Then you might be able to unbind it, although you might not be willing to do so when the time comes."

"I see…" she said.

Her admission to Ravenwood happened mostly because she had summoned Rocky in the first place. Did Ambrose think that an enhanced memory could help her become a better wizard? Should she use it for tests? She decided not to. She wasn't Rocky. She wanted her achievements to be hers, not her familiar's.

"Now that this is settled, I'll teleport you back to the Rainbow Bridge, Alex will think that you didn't find any proof for the extra students, play along with it," Ambrose said, the staff already in his hand.

"Wait-What? I actually wanted to ask you this… but how did you appear in your office all of a sudden?"

"I have been here all the time, Rosemary, you and Alex on the other hand, weren't searching the right place."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing much. Prepare yourself for school, young wizard."

A flash of light and the office was gone. The sound of water crashing on water replaced the silence of the office and the bright colors of the city took the place of the four walls.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?" Alex said, waving his hand in front of her.

"Um... yes?"

"Too bad we didn't find anything. You won't be able to enroll. Sorry for that… I truly believed what I told you earlier."

A letter slowly fell through the air, landing on the pavement between Rose and Alex. She took it upon instinct and read the recipient. Her name written in black ink urged her to open it and read the contents.

 _Dear: Rosemary Green,_

 _I am sorry for such a grave mistake on my part, but the official list released earlier today is wrong, and the score in your exam was high enough for admittance. Attached to this letter is a list of materials needed for the year and my sincere apologies for the inconvenience. I hope you will have a nice year at Ravenwood School of Magical Arts._

 _-Yours faithfully, Merle Ambrose._

"That doesn't make any sense!" Alex said, reading the letter with eyes wide as saucers.

"It seems I've been accepted after all…"

"Maybe Ambrose doesn't want us getting involved in whatever is happening with the rigged exam… Now you don't have any reason to continue on with the investigation."

Rose slightly tilted her head, looking at the boy who seemed to be extremely troubled by the sudden turn of events, muttering nonsensical conjectures to himself.

"Oh, I won't give up. Ambrose might be the headmaster, but he can't bend the rules whenever he wants! If he does that, why not change the exam as a whole?" Alex said, not failing to express his disdain."Excuse me, Rose, I have to go, maybe I can get some evidence some other way," he said, before walking away in a rush.

Rose just sighed, waving the boy off, the letter held close to her heart as relief washed over her.

* * *

It was the first day of school. A crowd of novices in white robes stood in front of Bartleby, their chatting covering every other noise.

Rosemary breathed a couple of times in order to calm herself. She had already seen Alex, somewhere along the crowd, engrossed in a deep conversation with three other students.

Even though he was the only person he knew at Ravenwood, she didn't want to go near him yet. She was sure he would have started to ask questions she would rather not answer.

 _"Come on, Master, be happy! Even Ambrose thinks I'm awesome!"_

 _"Don't let it go over your head. I won't be known only because of my annoying familiar. I'll find a way to unbind you before the end of the year, remember my words."_

 _"Oh, that's yet to be seen,"_ Rocky replied, taking it as a challenge.

Gathering up what courage she had, Rose walked forward, trying hard to find someone to talk to. She didn't want to pass the year all alone with Rocky, no matter how much her familiar told her she would.

With slow, uncertain steps she walked among the crowd, her heart beating faster as she came to the realization that she had managed to be there. Her dream finally coming true.

That was how her adventure in search of magic came to an end, and that was also how a new adventure began for her. An adventure that would take her to new worlds, discover ancient secrets and fight countless battles. Her future was shining bright and she looked forward to it, smiling back.

* * *

 **Warning. Overly long and important Author's Note invading your field of view, engage in combat for your own safety:**

 **And this is the end of 'Seeking Magic.' I never intended for it to be a long story, more like a short side story related to 'Fragment of a Wish.' If you want to know how Rose's story will continue, be sure to check it out! Many of the questions left hanging here will surely get an answer there.**

 **It was a story I wanted to tell. When I drafted down the first concept of Rose's character in FoaW, I always thought she'd have some trouble getting into Ravenwood and I didn't want her struggles to be just a few lines of exposition explaining why she has a Rock familiar. XD**

 **I'm glad to everyone who supported it through following, favoriting, reading and reviews, it really means a lot to me.**

 **Special thanks to Gh0stheart who has been a huge help with her amazing editing skills, I probably would have gotten stuck if it weren't for her. A big Thank you to Madadh Allaidh Joe for her continuous support and for her help in polishing up Ambrose's letter.**

 **I'll probably come back to this story and polish it up a bit more eventually, so any reviews to help me focus on what might need to be changed, are greatly appreciated. If you enjoyed it and want to leave a review… I have nothing against that though ;)**

 **Sorry for the long Author's Note, but being the end of the story I thought I could get away with it. :3**


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